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From the Editors
At The West View, we recognize that every person has a unique perspective and experience that reflects our community, and we provide platforms for disenfranchised voices to be heard.
We were dismayed to learn of the Utah Legislature’s resolution urging the Utah State School Board to ban the teaching of critical race theory. Critical race theory examines how racism and disenfranchisement against people of color persists through our country’s systems and institutions. It is not an indictment of guilt for all white people, nor is it an attempt to gain special advantages for people of color. It’s simply an awareness of existing, systemic inequalities.
Let us be clear: Instead of “prevent[ing] schools from endorsing discriminatory concepts,” as the Senate claimed to be doing, this resolution seeks to silence the very voices recognizing real discriminatory practices in our society.
Just five years ago, racial justice was neither radical nor partisan. Jeb Bush, then the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, decried the unequal access to education and economic opportunities experienced by people of color; however, since then, a national political movement has grown to silence the voices speaking truth to power.
This resolution is especially troubling considering it was passed just before the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre, when unchecked systemic racism boiled over into the mass murder of Black Americans by a mob that was virtually state-sanctioned. June also marks the annual celebration of Juneteenth, when slavery was finally ended, and LGBTQ Pride month, which is also related to the fight against systemic oppresion.
On May 25, we also observed the first anniversary of George Floyd’s murder and the beginning of global protests against the very systemic racism that our Legislature now seeks to shield from scrutiny. They claim to be responding to constituents concerned about the implications of critical race theory; however, they’re ignoring the voices of constituents who have marched, protested, and spoken out during the past year of demonstrations.
The resolution suggests the Utah Legislature sees systemic racism as purely political, and that it can be treated as a political issue. That luxury isn’t afforded to people of color, for whom systemic racism is personal in the most visceral ways: restricted opportunity, unequal outcomes in the justice system, and disproportionate rates of violent interactions with police.
Our Legislature has chosen to ignore the voices and erase the experiences and identities of disenfranchised members of our community. It is incumbent on all of us to refuse that erasure.
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